Edge-finishing machine



Patented Jan. 1, 1929 stares reeazse narrat shes.

' STEI HEN 0. YEATON, OF BEVERLY, AND MEIiBOURNE VJ. 'WHI'IE, 0F LYNN, MASSA- CHUSETTS, ASSIGNORS TO UNITED 0E MACHINERY CORPORATION, OF EATER- SON, NEVT JERSEY, A GORPGRATION OF NEW JERSEY.

EDGE-FINISHING .MACHINE.

Application filed March 29,1928. Serial No. 98305.

This invention relates to machines in which a hot shrinking tool is employed for finishing the edges of pieces of sheet material and is herein illustrated as embodied in a machine for finishing the edges of pieces of upper leather which are to he used in the manufacture of boots and shoes,

Machines of this general type commonly comprise a support for a leather piece, a

plow or turning post, a heated tool spaced.

somewhat from the operative face of the turning post and means for feeding the leather over the support with the display 'side of the leather (usually the grain side) in contact with the support and with the extreme margin of the other side usually the flesh side) held up against the hot shrinking tool whereby the margin of the flesh side is shrunk andthe margin of the grain side caused to curl toward'the flesh side, so that in the finished work the edge presents a grain surface instead of the flesh surface which resulted when the leather piece was originally cut out of the skin, a hammer being commonly employed which strikes the edge to increase the curl thereof;

WVith certain kinds of work it has been found desirable to skive the edge before presenting the work to the machine: but whether the work is skived or unskived, the edge of the work-or a portion of the edgeis bent up between the shrinking tool and the turning post and, as has been stated, is operated upon by the hammer. the amount of stock which is finally bent down by the hammer depending upon the amount which extends up between the turning post and the tool. I

The general object of the present invention is to improve still further machines of this general type so as to facilitate operating upon a greater variety of unskived work and to assure that the width of thecurled edge shall. be uniform.

According to one feature of the present invention one of the members which cngage the turned-up edge of the work prior to the operation of the hammer is provided with a stop or shoulder to limit the amount which can be turned up, space being provided to receive the comparatively thick, turnedfup edge of unskived work or the thick portion near the base of the skive of skived work. In theillustratedmachine to the adjacent face of the turning post but at a slight angle to said face, the forward end of the tool being so close to the post that no part of the edge of the'work can rise between the two mcmbers', and the rear end of the tool being spacedalittle' farther from the post so that atthis locality a small extent of said edge may extend between the tool and the post. l/vhether any part of the edge does so' extend depends upon the thickness and condition 0f the ed e of the work when it reaches this locality, it beingunderstood that the hot tool acts both to sear,' and probably remove, a portion of theedgc and to'render the leather more or less plastic, and that different kinds of'leather respond somewhat differently'to the action of the hot tool. In some cases, then, the turned-up edge of the work may, remain entirely in the groove and in others a part of it may extend up between the tool and the post at the rear end of the tool, but, in any event, the extent to which .the edge or extreme margin of the work may be turned up is limited.

These andother features of the ,inven tion, including certain details of construction and combinations of parts, will be described as embodied. 1n an illustrative machine and pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring now ings,

Fig. 1 is a perspective of a portion of a machine in whichthe-present invention is to the-accompanying draw embodied, the presser wheel having been omitted so as not to obscure the other parts; "Fig. 2 is a perspective of one form of shrinking tool;

Figs. 3 and 4 are sections taken respectively on the lines III HI and IV-IV of Fig. 2 showing a piece of work in process of being operated upon;

Fig. 5 1s a section of a piece ofwork after having been operated upon by a machine equipped with the tool shown in Figs. 2 to 4;

temperature of the tool.

Fig. 6'is a perspective of another former shrinking tool;

Figs. 7 and '8 are sections taken on the lines VII VII and VII VIH of'Fig. 6 showing apiece of work in process of being operated upon; v

Fig. 9 is a section of a piece of work after having been operated upon by a machine equipped with the tool of Figs. 6 to 8;

Fig. 10 is a plan of a portion of the machine shown in Fig. 1; and

Fig. 1.1 is an elevation of another form of shrinking tool.

Figs. 2, 3, 1-, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11, it should be noted, are all upon a greatly exaggerated scale. The illustrated machine is similarin its general Organization to the machine of Letters Patent No. 1,599,518, granted Sept.

14:, 1926 upon. an application tiled in the.

name of Fossa, and reference is made to that patent for details of construction not described below. I

. Referring more particularly to Figs. 1

and 10,-the work is fed intermittentlyover a table 15 in the direction indicated bythe arrows by an upper feed member. 17, a lower feed member 19 and a hammer 21. The

lower feed member moves back and forth.

The upperfeed member and the hamirer descr be rectangular paths in a vertical plane. In Fig; 10 a feed movement has just been completed and the three members are at their extreme left-hand positions. The upper feed member 17 and the hammer 21 will next rise, then move to the right and then descendto press the work against the lower i eedmember 19, which has meantime returned to its extreme right-hand position, after which all three members will move again to the left. The leather piece re ts with its grain side upon the table 15 d upon the lower feed me1nber19 with its margin in engagement with and bent upwardly by a plow or turning post23.

Located adjacent to the turning post is a shrinking tool 25, being herein shown as a generally U-shaped member of suitable meta1, such, for example, as the alloy known as nichrome, heated to the desiredtemperature by an electric current. To this end the upstanding legs of the shrinking tool are connected respecti.vely with the terminals 27, 29 of an electric circuit, the amount of current flowing through which may bevaried in any suitable manner so as to control the This temperature is varied according to the nature and weight of the leather being operated upon but, in any case, is maintained at a degree sufficiently high to scar and shrink the leather on one side so that the unshrunken side will curl toward the shrunken side. The shrinking tool is spaced slightly from the turning post, the lower operative portion of the tool tool and the turning post.

being inclined to the plane of the table as shown in Fig. '1 and slightly away from the adjacent upright face of the v post 23 as shown in Fig. 10. As the leather passes beneath the tool and is bent up against the tool by the plow, it is shrunk on the flesh side so that the grainsidecurls toward said flesh side, the hammer 21 descending at the proper time upon the curled edge. v

The illustrated shrinking tool is provided with a recess to receive the curled-up edge of the leather, the tool being located close to the turning post 23 that only a small portion, if any, of the leather passes between the tool and the post, and that only between the rear end of the tool and the post where the space between these two members greatest. Referring nowto 2, a shrinking toolis shown the position of which is reversed from the position in which it is shown in Fig. 1, so asto show clearlya groove 31 which starts at the left-hand forward end of the tool, as viewed in Fig. 2 (the righthand end as viewed in Fig. 1), and extends obliquely across the lower face of the tool, the forward end of the groove being spaced somewhat from that side of the tool which, when in the machine, is adjacent to the turning post,and the rear end of the groove extending close tot-hat side of the tool which is adjacent to the plow. This grooveis somewhat wider and deeper at its forward end than at its rear end to allow for the gin of the leading end oi? the work rides up on the turning post 23 and is exposed to the heat of the tool, the edge of the leather curls up into the groove and remains in con tact with tae walls oi the groove as it is fed along. F 3 shows whatis believed to be the condition of the edge of the leather when it has reached the locality of the. section line IIIIII of Fig. 2, and Fig. 4t shows its condition when'it has reachedthe locality of the section line IVIV. At this time it will be understood that the edge of the leather is somewhat plastic from the effect of the heat, sothat, as it passes 'l'rom the rear end of the turning post and is struc by the hammer, it is crushed or bent into the approximate form shown in Fig. 5.

Although the edge of the leather sometimes remains entirely in the groove, this is not always the case since, in some in-' stances, a. small portion of the edge of the leather rises between the rear end of the No considerable extent of leather can so rise, however, owing to th'e'fact that the greater portion of the edge is engaged by the upper wall of the groove. The groove thus prevents any considerable amount of the edge of the leather from crowding up between the rear end of the tool and the turning post and controls the extent which may so rise so that, in the finished work, the amount of the edge which finally is bent over by the hammer is of the post. By providin in the bottom of the 7 tool a groove to receive the edge of the leather, in the mannershown, this tendency is to a large extent obviated.

With the construction described above it has been found that a large part of the work commonly encountered may be treated I satisfactorily without any preliminary skiving. This desirable capability is believed to be due, in addition to the reasons given above, to the fact that the tool, by reason of the groove, has more area of contact with the leather than was hitherto the case, so that a more effective shrinking and sear ing action takes place. It should be understood that, although one purpose of the groove is to permit unskived leather to be treated, the grooved tool will operate perfectly well upon leather which, because of its refractory nature or its considerable thickness, requires preliminary skiving.

In Fig. 6 is shown another form of shrinking tool 125 in which the groove 33 is a straight one extending along that side of the operative face of the tool which is adjacent to the plow 23. This tool, which vis a heavy one with asomewhat larger groove than that of the tool shown in Figs. 2 to 4, has been found to be advantageous in operating upon very thick leather. In Fig. 7, the edge of the work, due to the shrinking effect of the heat, has curled over into the groove. In Fig. 8 further shrink- .ing and curling of the edge has taken place.

Fig. 9 shows the finished edge after the hammer has operated upon it.

In Fig. 11 there is shown a tool particularly adapted for operation upon comparatively thin pieces of work which have sharply curved edges. When tools having comparatively long operative portions, such as those shown in Figs. 2 and 6, are employed, difficulty is sometimes encountered, particularly if the curves are convex, by reason of the fact that, as the work is swung to cause the tool to follow the contour of the edge, the rear part of the tool extends beyond the edge and tends to wipe out the curl which has been imparted to the work by the forward portion of the tool. For operation upon work of this kind, the tool shown in Fig. 11 has been found to be eifective. This tool has a comparatively short operative portion provided with a groove 37 which extends obliquely across the operative face of said portion from end to endthereof. lVith such a tool sharply curved edges may readily be operated upon.

Although the invention has been embodied in a particular construction, it should be understood that the invention is not limited in the scope of its application to the particular construction which has been shown and de scribed.

Having thus described our invention,

what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is;

1. A machine for producing a finished edge upon a piece of work having, in combination, means for feeding they work, and

two members which cooperate to bend the.

margin of the work and to shrink the margin on one side thereof, one of said members having means for engaging the edge v of the work to limit the extent to which the margin may be bent.

2. A machine for producing a finished edge upon a piece of work having, in combination, means for feeding the work, and two members which cooperate to bend the margin of the work and to shrink themargin on one side thereof, one of said members having a stop for engaging the edge of the work to limit the extent to which the margin may be bent.

3. A machine for producing a finished edge upon a piece of work having, in combination, means for feeding the work, and two members which cooperate to bend the margin of the work and to shrink the margin on one side thereof, one of said members having a recess for engaging the edge of the work to limit the extent to which the margin may be bent.

4. A machine for producing a finished edge upon a piece of work having, in combination, means for feeding the work, and two members which cooperate to bend the margin of the work and to shrink the margin on one side thereof, one of said members having a recess to receive the bent margin;

5. A machine for producing a finished edge upon a piece of work having, in combination, a shrinking tool and a turningpost which. cooperate to bend the margin of the which cooperate to bend the margin of the work and to shrink the margin on one side thereof, one of. said members having a cess in its work-engaging face adapted to receive the edge of the. work.

7. A machine for producing a finished edge upon a piece oi 'work having, in co-nhination, a shrinking tool and a turning post which cooperate to bend the margin of the work and to shrink the margin on one side iereoi, one of said members having a groove in its work-engaging race adaptedto receive the edge of the work, said groove extending in the general direction oi? feed of the work. i

8. A machine for finishing the edge of a piece of work having, in combii'iation, a shrinking tool, and means for causing the tool to operate upon the work to curl the edge thereof, said tool having provision for limiting the extent of the edge which is curled...

9. A machine for finishing the edge of a piece of work having, in combination, a shrinking tool, and means for causing tie tool to operate upon the work to curl the edge thereof, said tool being provided with a recess to receive said curled edge.

10. A machine for finishing the edge of a .piece of work having, in coinhinatio' shrinking tool having recess in its operative face adapted to receive the edge of the work, and means fol-causing the margin of the work to he traversed by the tool.

11. A machine for finishing the edge of a piece of work having, in combination, a shrinking tool having a recess in its operative face, and means for feeding the work past the tool in position to permit the edge of the work to extend into the recess.

12. A machine for finishing the edge of a piece or" work having, in combination, a support for the work, means for feeding the work over the support, and a shrinking tool arranged to contact with the margin or the work, said tool having in its operative face a groove adapted to receive the edge of the work, said groove extending in the general direction. of the feed movement of the work.

13. A machine for finishing the edge of a piece oi work having, in combination, a su, port for the work, a shrinking tool, a turning post, and means for feeding the work over the support with its margin held against the tool by the turning post, there being a groove in the tool to receive the edge of the work.

14. A machine for finishing the edge of a piece of stock having, in combination, a support for the stock, means for shrinking the margin 0-; the stock on one side to causethe edge of the stock to curl, there being a recess in the shrinking means to receive said curled edge, and means for hammering said curled edge.

15. A shrinking tooi for a machine of the clas described having a recess in its operative face of a size and shape to receive the edge of a piece of work.

16. A sl'urinl'ging tool for a machine of the class described. having a stop or shoulder in its work-engaging portion adapted to contact with the edge of a piece of work which is being operated upon by the tool.

17. A shrinking tool for a machine of the class described having in its operative face a groove adapted to receive the edge of a piece of work which is being operated upon by the tool.

18. A shrinking tool for a machine of the class described having a groove adapted to receive the edge of a piece of work, said groove extending along and parallel to one edge of the operative face thereof.

19. A shrinking tool having two spaced uprights and a substantially horizontal operative portion the length of which is less than the distance between the uprights.

20. A machine for finishing the edge of a piece of work, having in combination, a sup port for the work, a shrinking tool, a turning post, and means for feeding the work over the support with its margin held up by the turning post against the tool, there being along that ed eof the tool which. is adjacent to the turning post a substantially straight groove adapted to receive the bent up margin of the work.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification.

STEPHEN O. YEATOY. MELBOURNE W. WHITE. 

